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Friday, April 22, 2011

Sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters , the online service iTunes is finally ready for launch . Rumors suggest that Apple has long been to get into the cloud music to offer its customers to store music on its servers and access them from any computer or mobile device.

The idea is not new since it comes from the redemption of Lala, a music streaming service, at the end of 2009 (read: Lala: Apple sings a new tune ). Talks between Apple and the majors have taken much longer than expected, was expected in late summer 2010 , but such a service has still not shown. Meanwhile, Amazon has unsheathed his first Player Cloud (read: Amazon Cloud Player: iOS private cloud ), while Google, which has launched a similar offer, would be stalled.

If we are to believe Reuters So, this iTunes in the cloud would finally go ahead . Except, apparently, the agreements with copyright holders are not signed ... to be continued, so.

Following Reuters, Peter Kafka at All Things Digital adds a couple of info on the possible shape of this service. The fact that Apple is negotiating licenses with the labels (unlike Amazon which has opened its service to the nose and the beard of the majors) would authorize benefits a little more sophisticated.

According to a source such users would have a better quality audio files stored online. It would also allow Apple to have a master file for each piece, which would then be shared among users. Unlike Amazon, which considers its storage space as a kind of external hard drive that needs to transfer its securities.

The idea, if we understand correctly, would be to match the titles in our possession on his hard drive with their counterparts stored by Apple on its servers. And this does not stop at the purchased songs in iTunes, but all those available on his computer. On the other hand see how these licensing costs will be shared between Apple and its customers.

Two majors have already signed, and negotiations are still expected this weekend to finish convincing others.